“The flaws of Biden’s leadership have severely let down our party,” remarked David Plouffe, a previous counselor to Barack Obama, as recorded in a New Yorker clipping from Jake Tapper and Alex Thompson’s fresh creation titled, “Original Sin: President Biden’s Decline, Its Cover-Up, and His Disastrous Choice to Run Again.” The essence of the passage, bearing the title “How Joe Biden Handed the Presidency to Donald Trump,” is the notion that Democrats only lost the White House due to Biden’s obstinate vanity. Pinning the blame on Biden for the myriad of troubles faced by the Left is not just hypocritical but a form of self-deception.
Perplexingly, the Democratic Party’s approval ratings are hitting an all-time low, a situation that can’t be blamed solely on Biden’s known cognitive shortcomings. It’s worth harking back to when every single congressional Democrat chose to ram through the Inflation Reduction Act—despite numerous warnings from economists about impending inflation. And certainly, piling the blame solely on Biden for championing misguided views on gender – a common trait among Democrats – is equally misleading.
Did any Democrat in office express concerns about the chaos triggered by unchecked immigration? The answer, likely, ‘I wouldn’t recall if any did.’ Yet, a pre-election Pew poll revealed a staggering 78% of respondents regarded the border situation as a crisis or substantial issue. One crucial jab at Biden suggests that he didn’t provide the space for an alternative candidate.
In all probability, had Biden retreated earlier, the nominee would still have been Kamala Harris. Could anyone genuinely entertain the notion that a fiercely ambitious politician nestled in the White House would simply step aside or allow a moderate governor to usurp the nomination? The only Democrat who exhibited consistent superiority over Harris in most surveys after Biden’s debate fiasco was Michelle Obama. It was bound to be Harris.
What leads anyone to believe that allowing Harris more time would have bolstered her chances? Following a brief popularity surge, the approval ratings of the vice president sadly plummeted. In fact, Harris would have benefitted from less exposure, not more. Regrettably, the more the public learned of her, the more her approval waned.
Sadly, like any potential Democratic candidate, Harris was driven to campaign based on the president’s record. A record which, sadly, was disapproved by many well before the media were forced to concede the president’s declining cognitive health. The Democratic Party had undeniably dropped the ball.
Survey results indicated an approval rating of only 36% for Biden’s handling of the economy, while a meagre 28% gave a thumbs-up to his immigration strategies. Correspondingly, only 33% endorsed his approach to foreign policy, and a disappointing 30% approved of his Middle East dealings. Despite such dismal figures, let’s not forget, elections often boil down to a duel between two visions.
A CBS News survey revealed a nostalgia, with 65% of Americans reminiscing fondly about the economic state of the union under Trump, in contrast to only 38% who felt the same way about Biden. Does anyone sincerely believe Governors Wes Moore, Gretchen Whitmer, Gavin Newsom, Andy Beshear, or JB Pritzker possess the charm or commanding arguments to eclipse that record? This seems extremely doubtful.
Plouffe might have been among the rare Democrats who publicly pondered the wisdom of endorsing a candidate displaying noticeable cognitive deterioration over the years. However, on the first day of the 2024 presidential debates, nearly the entire party and media were still shielding Biden. Should the president have rebuffed the chance to debate Trump, the Left likely would have persisted in concealing Biden’s ill health.
It wasn’t until the president was utterly exposed that the Left reluctantly turned against him. The New Yorker piece recounts an awkward moment at a renowned Hollywood fundraiser where Biden failed to recognize George Clooney, prompting Barack Obama to guide the president off stage. However, even at this late stage, major media outlets were still attempting to manipulate public sentiment regarding the president’s degrading cognitive capability.
Merely three days later, Tapper’s colleague denounced the aforementioned in CNN’s media newsletter as a ‘fabrication.’ Two days before the debate, then-Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., reassured journalists about the president’s sharpness, stating it was at its best in years. ‘He’s fine. All this right-wing hullabaloo about his mental acuity dwindling is merely false,’ he asserted.
The New Yorker’s piece revealed that Schumer, during his regular telephone conversations with Biden, noticed recurring memory lapses on the part of the president. However, despite these concerns, Schumer appeared more anxious about public perception than the fading mental acuity of one of the world’s most powerful leaders.
Sadly, the Senate leader’s primary concern was with optics, not the capacity of a man in one of the world’s most influential positions. Unfortunately, the same goes for most of his party members. Therefore, one could argue that the Democrats and their own decisions bear the brunt of responsibility for their current state.
The post Biden’s Vanity: Catalyst to Democratic Party’s Downfall appeared first on Real News Now.
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